


Enter Arainai

by thunderscape7



Series: Bad-ass Mage Women Save Thedas [3]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Breaking up with Alistair, Canon Dialogue, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Feelings, It Hurts So Bad, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 01:04:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11070816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderscape7/pseuds/thunderscape7
Summary: Sofia fell hard for Zevran, but unfortunately, her inexperience with feelings and relationships hurts herself and Alistair in ways she couldn't have predicted.





	Enter Arainai

**Author's Note:**

> Completely based off the fact that when Alistair continued to flirt with my warden after I romanced Zevran none of the dialogue options to turn him down felt right and thus the break up scene occurred.  
> I hurt so bad!!

Sofia never meant to hurt Alistair. The hardest thing she had ever had to do up to this point was turn his feelings down. She liked the bastard prince, he was her best friend, her first outside of the Circle, She wasn’t fond of the fact that she became the unofficial leader of their rag tag team ahead of the older warden, but she didn’t hold that against him. She understood he didn’t want the position and she had been doing relatively well, so there wasn’t really a reason to complain until she had to make life-or-death decisions on her own because she was considered “in charge”. 

When, on their trip to Lake Calenhad to recruit the mages for the situation at Redcliffe, Alistair presented her with a rose, she’d been flattered. It had been an incredibly sweet gesture, and she thanked him for it. She hadn’t taken it as a romantic gesture, but looking back on it, she probably should have. He was so smitten, she just couldn’t see it and even though she really liked him, she just didn’t have those same feelings. She didn’t come to this conclusion until they met the crow, Zevran Arainai.

Now to say that she saw him and instantly fell in love would be a hyperbole. She of course, only saw him as a man trying to assassinate her and her friends. Then she had spared him, much to Alistair’s dismay, and he looked at her with those dazzling eyes and that cocky smirk and she was utterly lost. And to her amazement, she’d actually started  _ flirting  _ with him. Flirting had never been her strong suit, and she didn’t know what in the elf brought it out in her, but words came easier to her around him. It helped that her body felt warm when she spoke with him.

“I have a question, if I may.” Zevran said one night when she walked past his spot in front of his tent at camp. She stopped and smiled.

“Go ahead.” she welcomed. She made a point to talk to everyone in their party at least once a day to make sure things were going well. Sten was the hardest one to get through too, but Alistair and Zevran always had something to say and it was nice to catch up with Wynne again.

He hesitated a moment, “Well, here’s the thing. I swore and oath to serve you, yes? I understand the question you’re on and that is all very fine and well. My question pertains to what you intend to do with me once this business is over with? As a point of curiosity.”

The rogue’s Antivan accent made her knees weak. “Is this after I ravish you in celebration?” The words left her lips without her even conceptualizing them. She blushed even as she finished the sentence.  _ What in Andraste’s name was she saying?! _

Zevran, however, rolled with it. “Now there’s a thought. Normally I am the one doing the ravishing when it comes to comely lasses. I like it.” Sofia was  _ weak _ . “But you are also distracting me from the point. I said I would serve until you released me. One simply assumes that once your grey warden business is finished you would have no need of an assassin to follow you about. Am I wrong?”

“There’s always a use or two for a handsome elf.” She answered in a coy fashion that surprised even herself. He chuckled in a sultry way and before he could say anything, she flushed deeply and slunk away to wallow in her embarrassment. 

Alistair and Zevran had plenty of their own conversations as well while they were on the road. Especially after saving Connor and banishing the demon that had taken hold of him.

“So why would the Crows send you, Zevran?” Alistair asked as they traveled. It was a nice change of pace from his and Morrigan’s bickering.

“Is there some reason why they should not?” Zevran questioned back.

Alistair huffed. “Plenty of reasons. Starting with the fact that you weren’t exactly the best they had, were you?”

Zevran laughed. “Slander and lies. For shame, Alistair.”

“I'm not an idiot. Well, not most of the time. You're no raw recruit, but I've seen you fight. You're no master of combat, by any means.”

Sofia was walking ahead of them, but she could practically feel Zevran’s grin. “Assuming that I intended a fair fight, that would indeed be a problem.”

“But the Crows must have master assassins, the way you describe them. Men with years and years of experience. Why not send them?”

“Why not, indeed? It is a mystery for the ages.”

“Oh, I get it. You're not going to tell me.”

“Morrigan said you were sharp. No liar, she.”

The conversation ended as they arrived back at camp but she could tell Alistair hadn’t given up on the topic. In fact, on their way to Honnleath to investigate the golem that a traveler had given the control rod for, apparently it was once again time for this conversation.

“Still with the stern glances, Alistair?” Zevran asked, sounding a bit frustrated.

“You didn’t answer my question. About why the Crows wouldn’t send their best man.”

“So for that I must suffer all these fearsome glares? You are cruel to subject me to such torture.” Zevran chided.

Alistair sighed. “If you aren't telling me, there must be a reason.”

“If you must know, the masters do not often take contracts outside Antiva. And I made the best bid.”

“Best bid?”

“We agree to pay the guild a portion of whatever the contract offers. The one who agrees to pay the most gets the contract, so long as the guild deems them worthy.”

Alistair sniffed. “And they thought you were worthy?”

Zevran laughed. “Against a pair of Grey Warden recruits? Apparently so.”

“Were there many who wanted the contract?”

“None. You are still Grey Wardens, after all, and even in Antiva, killing members of your order is considered . . . impolitic. It made the guild’s decision considerably easier, I imagine.”

Alistair was quiet a moment before he said, “Well, that’s comforting, somehow.”

 

They talked of tattoos and the Crows for quite some time after that, but nothing really came up. Looking back on it, Sofia assumed she should have felt Alistair’s feelings for her much sooner. She was so blinded by her own feelings and thoughts at the time, plus the drastic  _ Blight _ going on around them, that she didn’t see it. Even with the conversations between Alistair and Zevran themselves like the one on their trip towards the ruins of Ostegar.

Alistair was the first to speak. “So let me ask you something. What are your intentions with her?”

“You speak of her as if she is not present. She is just right over there, you know . . .” Zevran said. Sofia appreciated that, since she didn’t appreciate being talked about with them literally walking behind her.

“Don’t dodge the question. I’m serious.”

“Mmm. Do I detect a bit of jealousy here? Feeling territorial, are we?” Zevran all but purred. Sofia remembers questioning why Zevran would use that word. Jealousy. What on earth would Alastair be jealous of? Sometimes Sofia surprised herself with how thick-headed she could be.

Alistair gave a frustrated sigh. “I am just asking what your intentions are. You did try to kill us all, remember?”

“And now I owe her a blood debt, as she has spared my life. It has brought us . . . closer together.”

“Is that a smirk? Are you smirking at me?” Alistair practically shouted.

“I assure you, ser, that I am not smirking. No smirking here, no.”

“Well, just . . . watch yourself, then. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

 

Her naivete over the whole subject is what led her to be so blindsided by Alistair stopping her just outside of Ostegar.  He waited for Zevran and Shale to move farther ahead out of earshot before he spoke to her in a slightly strained tone. “So . . . let me ask you something. A personal question.”

Sofia hesitated. “What kind of personal question?” she asked, completely oblivious to what he would ask.

“I’ve noticed you and Zevran and . . . I guess I was wondering about what the relationship was. You two seem close.”

She nodded. “We are. I care a great deal for him.” She admitted, wondering how many of the others at camp had noticed. Probably all of them if she was honest.

“So then, this is it? You’ve chosen someone else.” Alistair’s words startled her. Had he . . . had she been inadvertently leading him on? Horror overtook her.

“Alistair, I . . .”

“I’m fine with it. Really. If it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be. Zev’s a lucky bastard. That’s all I really have to say about it. I hope he makes you happy.”

It felt like a punch to the gut. Sofia hesitated only a second. “He does. I . . .” She didn’t know what to say to make any of this better. How had she been so blind and foolish? “Are you okay with this?” His opinion meant so much to her.

“I . . . not really, but I don’t have a lot of choice here, do I? Let’s get back to it then, we have plenty of other things to keep us busy.” Alistair walked ahead to catch up with Zev and Shale, leaving Sofia alone for a brief moment on the outskirts of Ostegar. She was . . . it felt like all the air had been knocked out of her lungs. If she had known that she had been making Alistair feel that way . . . she wasn’t sure what she would have done. Would she have set him straight? Let him know to his face that she didn’t feel the same way? She should have, she really should have. She had simply seen his actions as kindnesses, not any sort of affection and it hurt to know she had just broken his heart. She wiped away a tear that was slipping down her cheek and tried desperately to school her expression before she returned down the path towards her companions. She could deal with emotions later, they had to find out what remained of Ostegar and their fallen king.


End file.
